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I remember back in my hospital days...

Posted By: cindyoh on 2009-06-24
In Reply to: I think doctors in general just don't care about their dictations... sm - FRUSTRATED!

when we had the more personal contact aspect with the docs. The ones who cared could/would actually walk back to where we were and you could ask them questions, have them correct something, etc., or the MR director could tell the heavy ESL docs to enunciate their English better, ha-ha, which sometimes actually worked. Our county coroner would tell us some interesting stories late in the evening. One lady plastic surgeon loved what she did so much, if you asked her a question, she would draw you pictures of what she did. I once handed an awful resident doc my earphones so he could hear what he was dictating; he was so embarrassed he slowed down from then on, so it made a huge difference. For a few years, to get the docs to get their charts done faster, the MR director held a contast; the winning doc would get a free trip somewhere. You would not believe how some of these guys would compete for this prize, cracked us up.
Yeah, those days are gone, but I hope to live to see the work goes back to the local hospital level. A hospital system the next town over to me did post 5 full-time Transcriptionist jobs last fall; I applied, just wanted an interview. I never heard back so I don't know how this panned out. I think I'd apply to return to in-house work if that ever happened. The job was definitely more interesting then.


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boy, do I remember those days

Make an appointment with your doctor asap and explain the situation. Ask for a Rx for Lindane Shampoo. It's more effective than the OTC products, which are also far more dangerous to use over a long period of time. If you are unable to have someone remove the nits, I would recommend using the product every 7-10 days for a couple of months, since that's how often the nits hatch, and within 7-10 days they'll be procreating all your head again.

It is imperative that you speak with the teachers in your child's classrooms and explain the situation to them. With the weather getting colder, coats are going to be thrown on each other and that's how the condition will spread, over and over again, from child to child. A letter also needs to be sent out to all parents about the problem. After that, you have to hope for the best. There's too often a "not my child" attitude which leads to noncompliance. It would take YEARS to finally eradicate the little monsters, despite the fact that you're doing everything you're supposed to do.

Trust me, I know. 


I remember those days
I graduated second in my class (Dean's List) in transcription and A&P.  However, the real training was on the job.  I had one doctor who was very ESL!!!!!  I would work for ever on one of his reports, which would end up full of blanks, and I would only have transcribed a very few lines.  He was very frustrating.  I can remember one day going for a coffee break, coming back to work and sitting in the parking lot crying.  I vowed I was not going back into the office, that I was quitting.  Then I thought, my husband will absolutely kill me after spending so much money for schooling and training :-).  I went back, and 18 years later I am still at it.  It gets better!
I remember those days
They used to say you could make $80K/year tax free, but you had to live in a compound ...
I remember those days, too...

While it was a more casual and friendly environment between doctors and the HIM departments, I remember freezing up and getting so nervous when the doctor was standing there dictating live & watching (both about my speed and my accuracy). I only hope they knew I wasn't always that bad, hehe.


Does anyone remember only being allowed to gas up on odd or even days sm
back in the 70s, depending on what number your license plate ended in?  brrrrrrr  long, long lines
oh i remember the good ol days
I could never stand working with people a straight eight hours a day, i'm not an "on" type of person and not gossipy either.  Just not my thing.  A lot of backbiting went on and you could just feel the negativity in the air.  At home I don't have that.  My dog/cat never talk behind my back nor are they fake.  They really and truly like me.  Just kidding.  But I remember those days well, couldnt get out fast enough.
I remember the days of refunds.. Now all we do is pay pay and more pay
Stinks to be us.
LOL @ both legs! I remember those days!
/
I remember in the old days when you were not hired without
at least 3 to 5 hears working in house - no in house on the job experience? - not considered.
Oh my gosh - I remember those days. sm
I started working at home 18 years ago when my son was born. I would have him in my office with me. He liked the bouncy walker back then. He would sit in it for about an hour bouncing up and down.

I would take him for a long walk and to the playground in the mid morning to tire him out. He would nap for a couple of hours in the afternoon and that's when I did some work. But, I have to tell you, I did most of my work at night when he went to bed. I had him on a strict schedule for napping, meals, bathing, and then bedtime.

Bedtime was 8 p.m. I started work at 8:30 p.m. and was done by 2 a.m. I managed 5-6 hours of sleep a night.

I lived on coffee and any other type of caffeine I could ingest. Not very healthy, but doable.

Back then, I had my own accounts, picking up and delivering tapes, etc. I took him along with me in the morning to deliver and pick up. It was very difficult, but somehow I managed.

It gets more difficult when they are more mobile, around ages 2 to 4. Then at age 5, they go to kindergarten, and you kinda get your work day back.

You know your child better than anyone. You sort of have to schedule your work day around him or her.

IC status worked for me in this situation. I don't think I could have done it as an "employee" type job with a strict work schedule.

Good luck ~ I hope this helped in some little way.

By the way, I still work evenings and night 18 years later, and I have daughter 16.

Hey, Brandi! I remember your stories about those days...
lol! Too funny. Yah, you Transquickers certainly did live on the wild side. I'm sure some still do!
Yeah, some days I do too, until I remember the typewriter.
Then I quit cussing my computer! lol
I remember this being in our local paper a few days ago nm
x
Hah!!! I remember the days of 2000 lines!
Not with my company...A good day is 1600 lines. Horrible platform. Wish line count was better.
Do you guys ever feel like just a number? Remember the good old days...
When if you had a problem, you could go straight to the manager and they'd take care of it right away, making you feel secure in your position and important?  When I talk to my supervisor, I feel like her main focus is to get off the phone with me asap, being very short with me, and quick to say she will get right on something when in fact she never does.  I just feel so remote and always worry about how long i'm going to have a job in the MT field because of how uncaring the supervisors are, not knowing us personally, not having a face to go along with the person, being able to yank us off an account we're comfortable with onto some ungodly thing where our line count goes down to zilch, and having NO control over it.  I was never one to work around people because of all the backstabbing that goes on with women in the office, but I would love to have a home office to report to periodically throughout the year, and maybe work in-house a couple times a month, just to put a face with people and not feel like a number that would be easy to dispose of. 
OMG I did too!!! Remember the raunchy equipment and "blue belts". People these days should
.
I am suspicious it is the Citrix because I remember it slowed down a hospital program I used to use
IT had to change from Citrix to something else to get it to speed up and work better. I don't know what Citrix is, but it must be bad, LOL.
Does anyone here go back far enough to remember AlphaScribe out of Del Mar?? (nm)
x
I know what she means! I remember way back sm
in med/sec school we were taught how to make a tickler file. It was a 3 x 5 file card box that sat pertly on our tidy little desks. In the box was a set of index cards numbered 1-31 which, of course, stood for the days of the month. During the course of our work day, when we made appointments or any kind of notation that had a date, we'd "tickle" the file by making a note on the card for that day. Because there were no computers, this little file would remind us on a day-to-day basis of what we had to do each day.
We also had little colored clips that we called ticks to attach to the card. Red meant priority, green money, etc. It was tough handling those darn little ticks with our white gloves!!!
(kidding--I'm not THAT old!)
I remember that just a few months back ...

there was a news story about a flight attendant who had taken 'provocative' pictures of herself on one of her company's airplanes after the passengers had disembarked and posted them on her MySpace page.  One of the company execs happened to find it and they fired her, primarily because she both listed the company name and revealed those photos with clearly displayed views of the company logo. 


I would think that this situation is very similar in principle.


Welcome back Lynn; of course! I remember you.
best wishes on your new, improved, undertaking of the field we love. You're gonna need a huge sense of humor, which you already possess. Have fun! and LaughLots!
I posted a couple days ago about my contract negotiations with a hospital. SM

Now, we have negotiated 12 cpl and that I only need to deliver work three times a week.  We've also decided that radiology will be a whole separate contract and that next week I will do a sample of dictation to see if the dictators are going to be difficult.  And then the negotiations start again.


How am I doing so far?


BACK IN THE DAYS

I remember selectric typewriters, with 3 sets of carbons and erasers and white out before self correcting until 1985 when the hospital went computer.  We would go home with carbon on our faces and clothes and how many times did we spill white out.  


back in the old days
I concur with above poster. we used to have fellow MTs to be that second set of ears to figure out a term. Isolation at home kind of created the need to have that second listener be its own entity. Since we only used to help each other out and not read each others reports, the whole go over them for format and grammar process did not happen after initial training. Or perhaps there were periodic reviews. I remember when we would have to deliver a report to the floor we would glance at it and couldn't believe some of the glaring errors. If we told the supervisor about it she would usually just shrug. But as MTs we had absolutely no authority and usually no access to each others' work. There was no such thing as QA or editors or whatever they may be called.
Sure! I was back transcribing 2 days (sm)
after birthing GirlTeen. I would put her in my sling (the lying sideways kind, not the straight up/down front pack kind), reach around her, and type while she nursed. I also pumped so Dad could be part of the feeding thing.

I hope you can take some time off at the beginning. You need the rest; baby needs to get to know you. Yes, the first days feel like all you do is nurse and change dipes.

Best wishes!
Isn't it funny (not!) that back in the days when - (sm)
training for MT was on-the-job and free, and terminology could be learned inexpensively at an occupational center, we were treated and paid decently. Now they make you pay through the nose for an education to qualify for being an MT, and go touting how you 'HAVE TO' have a CMT or similar credential to even be considered for a job, and you get paid practically nothing, and treated like a subhuman entity.
West Florida Hospital is hiring for remote MT - must train on site for 90 days though. Where are you
x
Back in the days when we all worked in an office

we got this new manager who I disliked immediately.  She couldn't spell every day words, she had absolutely no background in MT and figured she was doing somebody to get the position.  We had been promised an MT as our next manager.  She said she could type 85 wpm and she believed she could handle the job - HA.  We had an MT come in to interview and test and she had to ask me how to turn on the computer and how to print the report.   They company lost the account and it closed down that office and the manager couldn't get another job and had to move back home with mom and dad.  


I had a man looking for his wife to be able to do something where they could work and travel and he said his wife had a business degree and he felt she could do the job too.   I also had an associate whose husband got fired AGAIN and she called me wanting to know how she could do what I do, like she could start tomorrow.  


I've decided I'm going to tell people I'm a medical langauge specialist from now on and when they ask me what that is I'm going to say I'm a translator.  


I taped my back in the days, which worked.
nm
Help! I forgot how to set my computer back 4-5 days. Anybody help?
nm
I went back to work when babies were 9 days old
And yes, you can transcribe with TWO babies on your lap. It's a royal pain getting spit-up out of the keyboard though!

And before anybody starts a flame war on me, the boys are 10 years old now and now I get to work while they're asleep.... ;)
Boy, you brought back memories. I remember crying too and thinking I'd never get it that first y
x
DId NOT work. Had to pound the keys -- took it back in 2 days. nm
x
I taped my broken tapes back in the days.
nm
Not! They are why I went back to work for a hospital
to work
If your hospital/facility could take MT back

from the outsourced services, would it be interested in doing so? If you think it's Take Back Time at your hospital, facility, doctor's office, I am ready to offer them a proven solution to take control back into their own hands and create a win/win situation for hospital, MDs and MTs. It's Take Back Time!


How about you? If you could work for a hospital or facility without having a service between you and them, would you be interested? Do you have the proven quality and experience to offer a hospital? (Excluded: new grads, MT wanna be's, and trainees - this question is only meant for those with solid and strong acute care experience)


If the above scenarios appeal to you, contact me and let's talk.  


You're so right - I gave my notice - 5 more days & Im back home!!
I worked at home 9 years - back in an office for a year -cannot WAIT to be back home again. Office politics and BS, silly little rules that make no sense, traffic, hours less in each day because you spend that time commuting, people who care if you have a $200 purse or not...when you work at home you can still have friends, but you get to choose who you spend your time with!
don't worry, you may end up getting a call from the hospital to come back - sm
it has been happening a lot lately. Hospitals are getting rid of certain services and taking the work back inhouse and local.
Bringing up Bo Bice - he is back in hospital. nm
nm
Now that I'm back working directly for the hospital
nm
I figure if a week has gone by, forget it. But 1 recruiter did take 10 days recently to get back
s
Was offered 7.4-7.7 cpl for clinic work back in 2005 and 8 cpl for hospital. Is it still
s
Depends on what kind of hospital? Large urban hospital or small community hospital? SM

Also, is it a large teaching hospital? If so you have to consider there will be A LOT of different residents dictating, usually a lot of ESLs at teaching hospitals, and the residents rotate out and new ones rotate in every summer. So you can't expect to get the same dictators and build up your macros because the dictators change all the time.


I would say 9 cpl would be a pretty good offer for a small to medium community hospital where you will be doing the same dictators on a daily basis.  But for bigger, urban or teaching hospitals I would want at least 12 to 15 cpl. 


30 hours divided by four days equals seven-hour days. Most of us have to work pretty much every day
.
Working 6/hour days, 5 days/week I make
$42,000.00, but the work is there to make more if I want to.  I'm in the southeast. 
2000 low days, 4000 busy days
Did 43,000 lines last month.   6 doctors. 
You can "make a living" if you work 16-hr days, 7 days
and if you rarely buy anything but food and the barest essentials in clothing. My balancing act is so precarious that all it'll take is one of life's little disasters (rent increase, sick pet, major car repair) to pull the rug out from under me. Not a good feeling at all.
550-650 lph on average. Some days more, some days less. It all depends. nm
x
How? By working 12-hr days 7 days/week?
;LKJ
With short arms, I need chair with shallow seat, good back support and high back. Want arm rests
:+
OK! I'm glad you're back down here. Now don't go back up there and read those evil posts ag
Okay? But I have to leave you now, sadly. Thousands of noble dictating doctors are anxiously awaiting my help with their "dictations"....They're all loading up on chips, drinking lots of soda so they can burp, and then have to go to the bathroom...You know the routine! Off I go to earn some pennies!! But, truly, I am thankful that I have a job!